How Pagans Can Be Saved

The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
Night after night they portray knowledge.
They have no speech, there are no words;
No sound is heard from them.
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
Their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
Which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his
pavilion,
Like a champion rejoicing to run his course
It rises at one end of the heavens
And makes its circuit to the other,
Nothing is hidden from its heat.
(Psalm 19:1-6)

This portion of Psalm 19 is a beautiful poem. Together with the rest of the hymn it is a song of David that C. S. Lewis describes as "the greatest lyrics ever written". This portion depicts how nature reveals God to the entire world without words. It is called God's "general revelation" of Himself, and it reveals how it is possible for any person on earth to know about the divine Creator and to worship Him without knowledge of the Bible or encountering the gospel through formal preaching or teaching. If you have ever thought the question, How can God condemn a Hottentot from darkest Africa who never had a chance to hear about Him?, this is the answer----because of God's unmistakable signature written bold in the wonders of nature, no man is excused from condemnation who has observed creation's divine beauty.

"...Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities----his eternal power and divine nature----have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." (Romans 1:19-20)

"Men are without excuse"; if you have a friend who excuses himself from being Christian on the basis of not having been reared in a non-church-going family, have him discuss this scripture passage with you. He has no excuse.

The Bible is not a book based on science. Gallileo built a crude telescope in the Middle Ages, and concluded that the sun was stationary, while earth and the planets revolved about it. However, the Catholic Church tried him for heresy on the basis of this Psalm. If you reread it, you will see that it states that "the sun rises" and circles the earth. That usage is just a figure of man's common speech. The church leaders at that time held the belief that the words in the Bible were literally true on every field of knowledge. He was forced to recant; after speaking aloud that the earth didn't move, Gallileo was heard to mutter under his breath, "But it does." The Bible is true and will be found to agree with science when all is known after the world ends, but it can't be held to a literal exactitude with science or any other of man's disciplines.